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Deeplinks Blog

Deeplinks Blog

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today applauded a technical working group for heeding critics who called for rejection of a flawed electronic voting standard proposal that failed to require adequate security measures. The working group of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) drafted the...

September 2003
The DMCA has been used to invade the privacy of Internet users, harass Internet service providers, and chill online speech. The subpoena and takedown powers of Section 512 are not limited to cases of proven copyright infringement, and are exercised without a judge's review. The following is a...

San Francisco - Seven major record labels dismissed charges of copyright infringement leveled at a 65-year-old educator, artist, and grandmother from Massachusetts late last week. Sarah Ward was one of 261 individuals sued by the recording industry for allegedly sharing copyrighted music using peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing systems. What was the...

Internet services company Verisign, which controls portions of the Domain Name System (DNS), has abruptly implemented a scheme in which people who mistakenly enter a non-existent domain name are redirected to Verisign advertising. This move has shocked and outraged network administrators. "Verisign's unilateral action harms the Internet," said EFF...

September 2003
Introduction Among the many reactions to the September 11 tragedy has been a renewed attention to biometrics. The federal government has led the way with its new concern about border control. Other proposals include the use of biometrics with ID cards and in airports, e.g. video surveillance enhanced...

San Francisco - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today filed 261 lawsuits against people who allegedly shared copyrighted music online. The RIAA announced plans to sue more file-sharers and introduced an "amnesty" program available only to file-sharers who the RIAA has not yet identified or sued. The lawsuits...

San Francisco - Ninety-five organizations, ranging across the political spectrum, today sent letters to the chairs of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to thank them for planning hearings on the subpoena provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The organizations expressed their...

San Francisco - Numerous news sources, including Billboard and Associated Press, have reported since yesterday that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will announce an "amnesty" program for people who are sharing music files online perhaps as early as next week. "Rather than demanding that 60 million people sharing...

A federal district court in Chicago has rejected an effort by garage door opener vendor Chamberlain to use the DMCA to ban its competitor, Skylink, from selling replacement "clickers" for Chamberlain openers. "The Court properly rejected Chamberlain's use of the DMCA (PDF) to lock people out of their...

On Wednesday, August 25, the SCO Group Inc. announced plans to sue individual Linux users who decline to pay it a $700 license fee. "Suing consumers in order to speed-up resolution of SCO's lawsuit against IBM is completely unjustifiable," said EFF Staff Attorney Jason Schultz. "SCO should prove...

San Francisco - The California Supreme Court ruled today that publication of information regarding the decoding of DVDs merits a strong level of protection as free speech and sent a key case back to a lower court for a decision on whether a court can prevent Andrew Bunner from publishing...

A Massachusetts district court blocked the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) from using a single court in Washington, D.C., to issue subpoenas for Massachusetts students' identities. "The court rejected the RIAA's bald-faced attempt to use a single D.C. court ruling to steamroller Internet users' privacy nationwide," said EFF staff...

Boston, MA - A Massachusetts district court today dealt the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) a serious setback by rejecting its Washington, D.C., subpoenas for the identities of Massachusetts students. For the moment, MIT and Boston College need not respond to the RIAA demands. "Today's ruling requires the recording...

Supported by organizations from across the political spectrum, the Protecting the Rights of Individuals Act (PRI) seeks to place reasonable limits on the powers granted to law enforcement and intelligence agencies under the USA PATRIOT Act. PRI would amend many of PATRIOT’s most troublesome provisions, reasserting traditional checks and balances...